their own individuality,
apart and independent, enrich themselves by mutual interchange, and
the asperities which differences of taste and sentiment in detail might
otherwise provoke melt in the sympathy which unites spirits striving
with equal earnestness to rise nearer to the unseen and unattainable
Source, which they equally recognise as Divine.

Perhaps, had these two persons met a year ago in the ordinary
intercourse of the world, neither would have detected the sympathy of
which I speak. Raoul was not without the prejudice against artists and
writers of romance, that is shared by many who cherish the persuasion
that all is vanity which does not concentrate imagination and intellect
in the destinies of the soul hereafter; and Isaura might have excited
his compassion, certainly not his reverence. While to her, his views
on all that seeks to render the actual life attractive and embellished,
through the accomplishments of Muse and Grace, would have seemed
the narrow-minded asceticism of a bigot. But now, amid the direful
calamities of the time, the beauty of both natures became visible
to each. To the eyes of Isaura tenderness became predominant in the
monastic self-denial of Raoul. To the eyes of Raoul, devotion became
predominant in the gentle thoughtfulness of Isaura. Their intercourse
was in ambulance and hospital-in care for the wounded, in prayer for the
dying. Ah! it is easy to declaim against the frivolities and vices of
Parisian society as they appear on the surface; and, in revolutionary
times, it is the very worst of Paris that ascends in scum to the top.
But descend below the surface, even in that demoralising suspense of
order, and nowhere on earth might the angel have beheld the image of
humanity more amply vindicating its claim to the heritage of heaven.

CHAPTER XVII.

The warning announcement of some great effort on the part of the
besieged, which Alain had given to Lemercier, was soon to be fulfilled.

For some days the principal thoroughfares were ominously lined with
military convois. The loungers on the Boulevards stopped to gaze on
the long defiles of troops and cannons, commissariat conveyances, and,
saddening accompaniments! the vehicles of various ambulances for the
removal of the wounded. With what glee the loungers said to each other
"Enfin!" Among all the troops that Paris sent forth, none were so
popular as those which Paris had not nurtured--the sailors. From the
moment they a